*~ Hello everyone! I recently got into the Bayonetta goodness which inspired me to do a story of my own. The Characters in the Bayonetta Universe are of course NOT MINE. Rosa, Balder, Bayonetta/Cereza, Jeanne, lol I can go on. But yeah, the characters not in the universe are mine. But anyway, hope it is enjoyable and I hope to continue working on it, if it's good that is! SO, please enjoy, give some thoughts and yeah, lets see how this one turns out.~*

500 years ago, 1411. Vigrid, Umbra Sanctuary

Prior to the fall of the Umbra Witches and the Lumen Sages, Balder and his lover, Rosa, had just been persecuted and condemned to their demise. Balder was banished from Sunrise Valley as Rosa's demise was to be imprisoned. She had only brought their beloved daughter, Cereza, into the world not too long before their trial.

Umbran sisters escorted Rosa to her cell and settled her in. As for the forbidden infant, she was being tended to by a young witch, one of 17 years of age, light brunette hair that ended at her mid back, and translucent hazel eyes. After the baby girl was in a safe position and had her needs met, the young witch stole herself away from the nursery and headed for the keep in which Rosa was contained.

The girl sits in front of the cell with her black mermaid style dress fanned about her as her legs rested upon cold stone. She only laid her eyes of hazel on the witch with butterfly glasses who looked back with lifeless grey eyes, an expression similar to a small bird in a large but uncomfortable cage of iron. The young witch, with misting eyes, also observed the chains around her sister and fists formed on top of her lap clutching the black cloth in her palms.

"Sister Rosa... It's not fair!" The witch in the cell only widened her eyes a little at the girls' outburst. "What they've done to you is unfair! It's really not fair at all...!"

"Vizira..." the shadowed witch replied. "Please do not weep for me little one, for this punishment was expected. I have truly put everyone in a terrible fate that none of us could hope to avoid... Balder; I just love him so much... it couldn't be helped. I still love him very much even now... as well as our beautiful child..."

The young witch nodded in determination. "Of course you do... They're your... family... yes that's what the three of you are... family." The girl couldn't hold back warm salty tears anymore and softly started to cry with warm cheeks and gritted teeth leaning over forward holding herself.

"It's wrong... It's all wrong... a family should not be torn apart over something so fickle! They have no right! Monsters! All of them... even the elder!"

"Zira, calm yourself and be still, there is no need upset yourself. What's done has been done, and despairing at them will not change the coming times we face." Vizira looked up in attention, what did her sister mean?

"Listen to me, you must leave crescent valley at once. Not only here, but leave Vigrid all together. I know this sounds like pure madness to you but, please trust me on this... Don't look back and do what you can to survive. Go to the outer human world and live a life free from all of this madness. Do whatever means necessary, for your sake."

Vizira couldn't believe her ears. "Sister... what are you saying?"

"Danger is coming Zira; death is upon these very walls and this very valley, the sanctuary... everyone within... Even the sages are in peril."

"But I..." Vizira looked down with light brown hair shrouding her eyes. "..It's just... I don't want to... not without you, Mentora... You're everything to me, all the person I have left in my existence that I can really trust and really call my sister... No... my guardian. What makes you think I can hold my own up there... all alone in the state I'm in... I'd fail; I simply couldn't. I need you... don't you understand...? I'm utterly useless on my own..." Vizira stopped in her words with a gasp for a moment and smiled when an idea came to mind.

"I-I know, I can break you out! Yes, that's right! I can pry you from this hole. Then. we can run away from here and be free in the human world to live they way we see fit. We'll even take Cereza, and find Balder and-"

Rosa held up a hand. "No more, Vizira..." The girl paused into silence. Rosa looked down with closed eyes. "It's too late for me, little one." The girl's building smile disappeared again. "It all sounds wonderful, it truly does... but it's just too late for me..."

Vizira only shook her head rapidly. "No! I won't hear it! There has to be another way, you can't just give up! You can't!" Sniveling, the girl looked down to the tanned stone again remembering the moments of training sessions with Rosa. "Back then, you told me never to give up... you always told me to keep believing in myself and keep trying to become stronger in my craft with more training. Even on the days when I did badly. So badly that it was embarrassing and I wanted to cry and just cower in shame. You would then tell me not to cry and keep going. You helped me get stronger and gain confidence; but to hear this dreary babble of defeat from you just now... to hear such things pass your lips... I won't accept it! Not from you!"

Rosa sighed. "Little one, understand that fate cannot not be changed so easily. Mine is sealed indefinitely without any doubt. Yet for you, it's not too late for you Zira, not for you..." Rosa looked to the ceiling of her cell and softly chuckled. "I still remember, the little girl who would follow me around whenever she got the chance. Who did so well in her training when others thought otherwise, and managed reach the stars when no one else could; it was such a pleasure, to watch you blossom into the beautiful witch you are now, love. Your powers are still growing, true; yet they are so strong its impressive. You're almost proficient in using them too... and that... that'd be such a shame, such a waste to see someone with such potential be repelled from this world, and not have the chance to form... evolve into something even more lovely than you already are to this day..."

Rosa, with a shackle and chained hand, reached out to the girl before her, making the girl respond by coming forth and taking it with both of her hands only to nuzzle it with her cheek, holding it dear. Rosa felt the soft, thick locks of light brown bangs drape on her hand which made her pet Vizira through them.

"My Zirali..." Zirali was a name Rosa hadn't called her since she was a little girl. Just hearing her say it made tears globe from her eyes and drip to Rosa's hand feeling them grow cool as they stream down her palm.

"Mentora Rosa... my wonderful mentor..." The Rosa felt her apprentice's pain, and through the bars she embraced the girl as she silently sobbed.

After leaving the prison and heading for her chamber, she encounters a few witches who grinned in a creepy manner only Vizira did not take kindly to and knew what was coming.

"Well, well, well now... that's just too bad, hmm? Only for her..."

Vizira rolled her eyes and kept walking.

"Yes it is too bad, the black sheep lost her Bo beep so now she's up for slaughter!,"

One of the witches gasped. "Oh my! What will she do now?"

"Well, nothing dear~ Only be a good little lamb and take silence while being prepared for dinner!" A lofty voice said with an exaggerated smug of a laugh. Vizira recognized this voice all to well. A voice that made her tolerance fail to the point of making her stop as she cringed from the cackling of her tormenters, almost loosing her cool.

Looking back in anger she scoffed. "Maybe you should silence yourself, Lota. It's high time you start behaving more like a mature girl rather than a spoiled bratty bitch who can't even choose to be civil, even if she was told! Sod off..."

"What a horrid girl!"

"And her mouth! How filthy!"

"She can't speak to Lady Lota that way! What trash!"

The girls huffed and fidgeted towards the girl that only walked away in silence in a satisfied smile. Going towards the main hall's location, she came to a small house near the living quarters of the sanctuary.

A house by face, the reality was it connected to a small tower like addition shaped like a light house, but all nestled in a corner behind the grander living buildings. She met with her tuxedo companion, whom she petted as it rubbed around her black tight covered legs to her black flats mewing. "Oh Finny; come now boy, let's go inside... This place isn't a good cuddle spot for kids like us." She said bending over to pick him up. She opened the wooden door and went inside.

Going up the gray stone stairs that spiraled to the top, she went down a bit in a spacious hall and opened the door to her small but functional room. Her bed, with many comforters and two white cased pillows, was against the bay window of stained glass, and night stand holding a gas lamp and her silver Umbran watch stood beside it. At the edge of her bed, she placed her scruffy looking cat on the soft duvet comforter and giggled at how he stretched and caressed himself around purring as she played with his tail.

"Oh Finny, what is this girl going to do...? The only person I ever considered to be my entire world is now in a place that takes away everything in the world... The others mock me, and I bet the other adults are laughing too... monsters..." Finny mewed in agreement as she rubbed his body.

"You're lucky you know... you're a cat. Not a care in sight, able to lounge in the sun and play in the moonlight. Hell, you're in heaven right now no doubt... I wish I were born a cat, at least I wouldn't have had so much bad luck in my life, huh... just a carefree little kitty cat..." she mused with a smile.

After eating her dinner and setting out her night gown on the vanity chair, she went to the washroom at the very end of the hall and took a quiet bath in herbal green tea and lotus blossom extract, nearly falling asleep. In her room, the cat meowed warmly in greeting as he saw a white hawk with golden tips on its feathers sit in the sill behind the window before changing into a young man with messy dark brunette hair and white robes with gold trim. Using a gold blade, he propped open the window latch and leaped into room and pulled the window shut with the throw of his hand. Turning on the lamp, he looked around the room with a sigh.

"Damn, it's still too small. How she does it I'll never know... Oh well, may as well wait for her."

He sat then laid upon her bed with hands behind his head and crossed legs, closing eyes in comfort. Finny meowed while climbing all over him and was petted by the guy making him purr once more with bliss.

"Aiden? What are you doing here?" Vizira was standing in the doorway in a white towel covering her slender body, with stingy wet hair all over her face, shoulders and back. "What is it that you want now?"

He only smirked. "Well, isn't it evident? I came to see you like always, but I've got a serious dilemma on my side of the board this time." He bellowed holding up a hand. "I bet you had caught wind too about my master, and your mentor involved in a trial with him that got them both in a bad end?"

She nodded. "Yes, because of their child... little Cereza..." She said looking down and entering further into the room. She came to her vanity and the chair holding her gown.

"Yeah. Though I think the whole thing is a bunch of foolishness. A true pain in the royal ass if you ask me..." He said sitting up, holding Finny close.

"Yes I know," she said unhanding her towel, letting it fall to the floor revealing her body. "It truly is a mess of nonsense. Ancient law or none at all, it's a horrid excuse to put two people away... I wish there was something we could do for them both. You know, to reverse this atrocity of this punishment. It's not fair. Especially to their little one... she deserves both of her parents. She did nothing wrong..." She sat down on the pillow top chair, reached for her silver, white bristle brush and started tending to her damp locks. Aiden came over to his nude companion and took over the duty for her, taking in good care of managing the Spanish waved silk he loved running fingers through.

"If being born is a crime then the world is going mad... I understand how you feel..." She only sighed in response. "You know... Master Balder... he told me something that really made me wonder." He said as he brushed.

"What's that?" She said as she looked back at him in the corners of her eyes.

"He told me to leave Sunrise Valley and Vigrid to start a new life posing as a human and live out my days in their world... to live a life without worrying about magic and angels and demons. Just live a peaceful life amongst mortal kind. I find it mad to believe." He said putting down the brush on the vanity. He then grabbed a hair tie out of one of her porcelain dishes.

"Sister Rosa told me the same thing." She said looking back at him. "She told me to leave to Sanctuary and Vigrid, too. She said danger is coming... What I'm curious about; is why? I mean, all they did was make a baby out of the feeling of love; now all hell breaks loose because of that...?"

Aiden pulled his companions hair back and tied it all around into a ponytail. "A good question of curiosity indeed... I know how you feel love, but we can't ignore the bidding and shrug it off like its mindless dribble." He said taking her gown and kneading it up in his hands. She sighed into a whine as she raised her arms and adjusted about as he draped it over her. "I say, we carry out their wishes..."

She looked back at him then turned in the chair to face him. "What are you implying, Aiden?"

"That we leave, together. Leave both our clans and our lives within them behind. Go somewhere far away and never return like they told us." He placed gentle hands on her shoulders. "You've never been truly happy here, or treated decently by the other witches other than Rosa, or even having a warm home here... They keep you in a tower, a tower... tis pathetic... but don't think I'm without bad luck here myself. After Master Balder was banished I became a black sheep in my clan instantly, and now I see how it really feels to be despised." Vizira's eyes trembled. "Zira... I know we've been at odds all these years but I only ask it... please... would you accompany me on this journey...?"

"Aiden... I..." Her cheeks turned lightly pink. For a moment she didn't know who she was talking to. Was this really the boy she constantly fussed with and thought would be a pain in her butt for the rest of her eternity or did he grow up over night without her knowledge.

"Zira, if what our superiors say is valid, and what they say is coming is really as bad as they deem it, I honestly don't want know what it is or even be here when it happens. To be quite frank; I'm also... um... well... shaken up about going on my own. And... you know... it would be nice to have someone whom I know to join me... someone familiar, yeah? An idea worth exploring, right?" He said looking towards the ceiling rubbing the back of his neck.

She got to her knees in the chair as she fully turned her body to him, and wrapped arms around his neck making him hold her by the curves of her torso. She was also scared to go on this task alone herself, and what better travel partner to have other than a person you know tag along, not to mention someone strong with magic but also physically fit in body strength. They glared deeply in each others eyes; the decision was mutual between the both of them.

"Aiden... just let me know when we're leaving, and I'll prepare accordingly..." She said laying into the nape of his neck.

Internally, he felt elated with joy from her words, and shuffled into a decision in his mind. "Right... tomorrow night would be best. There will be a new moon too, so no one should really spot us so easily... Pack lightly, nothing overbearing. We only have one shot at this, so we have to make it good and quick." He said holding her closer into a hug. "We really can't afford to get caught, if that happens..."

She clutched his robe shirt. "Hush I know, don't remind me. We're both outcasts right now, disliked by our other superiors and peers. Our punishments would be devastating to our pride... especially since we're hated and the worst would only be determined." She looked down. "This means; I can't take Finny or Cereza with me... I really want to..." She said in sorrow. Aiden felt the guilt she had and lifted her chin by his finger and looked into her eyes with gold irises.

"They'd only be miserable on the trip. Besides, Finny will be just fine here, he's a smart chap of a cat, he'll get along spritely. Cereza is only a baby, she needs to be near her mother more than ever right now and in a good spot to do so." She nodded with coo. "I know you don't want to leave them behind, but to do our order, as hard as it is... we have to make sacrifices... there's no way around it..." She nodded.

"I know you have to make some... Your leaving behind precious things as well..." She said thinking of all he's leaving behind; his friend and roommate Taren, his caring guardian Canter, and memories, mostly well. He nodded in response and kissed her forehead and her forming tears in her eyes. In reality, he had a lot more to abandon than she did which made this even harder for him. From what she saw from him tonight, however, showed her that he was ready to give it up and make tread into a new start, a fresh slate of life.

After carrying her to her bed and tucking her in under her covers, he turned off the lamp and opens the window. After transforming into his hawk form, he fluttered and winged to the sill and turned to her.

"Remember, tomorrow night is our departure, I'll come for you when all is mellow within my sanctuary. Sleep well, love." He turned and spread his wings, leaping from the sill flying off into the distance of the dark starlight skies.

Vizira, pulling her comforter close, watched him disappear and felt loneliness again. With the thoughts for tomorrow clouding her mind, she turned on her side and nuzzled into her blankets before falling into a deep but comforting sleep.

[The feels .]